Golubria's Repulsion Field spell

[MainiacJoe]

Reflection seems to me to be an underused concept in Crawl. Perhaps there's a good reason for that, I'm not sure--but one thing I am sure of is that "The large rock reflects off your buckler! The large rock hits the cyclops! The cyclops dies" is super fun. So here's an attempt at a reflection spell.

This doesn't seem to fit as a third tier to Repel / Deflect Missiles because it isn't reducing to-hit of enemies. Instead it feels more like a second tier of Shroud of Golubria, doing something when an attack lands.

Shroud of Golubria:

• 1/3 chance to do nothing.
• If the shroud does do something, then D/(D+10) chance to unravel
• Otherwise the attack is negated.

Golubria's Repulsion Field

• 1/4 chance to do nothing.
• If the repulsion field does do something, then D/(D+20) chance to unravel.
• Otherwise the attack is negated.
• If a negated attack is a blockable ranged attack, then it is reflected.

Here is a table of Damage dealt (after AC and GDR) and the effects of the Shroud and the Repulsion Field. The Improve fields are the Repulsion Field's value divided by the Shroud's.

  Code:

          Shroud    Shroud     Shroud    R Field    R Field    R Field   Unravel    Negate
Damage    Nothing   Unravel    Negate    Nothing    Unravel    Negate    Improve    Improve
   1        33%        6%        61%       25%         4%        71%      0.59       1.18
   2        33%       11%        56%       25%         7%        68%      0.61       1.23
   3        33%       15%        51%       25%        10%        65%      0.64       1.27
   4        33%       19%        48%       25%        13%        63%      0.66       1.31
   5        33%       22%        44%       25%        15%        60%      0.68       1.35
   6        33%       25%        42%       25%        17%        58%      0.69       1.38
   7        33%       27%        39%       25%        19%        56%      0.71       1.42
   8        33%       30%        37%       25%        21%        54%      0.72       1.45
   9        33%       32%        35%       25%        23%        52%      0.74       1.47
  10        33%       33%        33%       25%        25%        50%      0.75       1.50
  15        33%       40%        27%       25%        32%        43%      0.80       1.61
  20        33%       44%        22%       25%        38%        38%      0.84       1.69
  25        33%       48%        19%       25%        42%        33%      0.88       1.75
  30        33%       50%        17%       25%        45%        30%      0.90       1.80
  40        33%       53%        13%       25%        50%        25%      0.94       1.88
  50        33%       56%        11%       25%        54%        21%      0.96       1.93
  60        33%       57%        10%       25%        56%        19%      0.98       1.97
  70        33%       58%         8%       25%        58%        17%      1.00       2.00

So the Replusion Field is a better Shroud, particularly in handling heavy damage, and also has a reflection gimmick. I'm guessing this would be a Level 6 or 7 Charms/Translocations spell, but what do I know about balancing those sorts of things? What I do know is that reflection is fun and I'd like to see more of it in Crawl.

[tedric]

I would love this spell, assuming it's more like a level 4-5 (so it's more likely I'll be willing to invest for it as a support spell on 3-runers). But then I'm one of those doofuses that will often use a shield of reflection just for the humor value, even when there are "better" shields available.

[ydeve]

It seems to be one of those spells you'd use if you happened to have the spell levels and could cast it anyway, but I'd give it up immediately for another more useful spell, and I certainly wouldn't train skills specifically for it. I just can't see when I'd use this over another spell.

[Sprucery]

It seems to be one of those spells you'd use if you happened to have the spell levels and could cast it anyway, but I'd give it up immediately for another more useful spell, and I certainly wouldn't train skills specifically for it. I just can't see when I'd use this over another spell.

Well, it's better than Shroud and Shroud is good. Of course it all boils down to what level it would be.

[Lacuenta]

Why not have all negated ranged attacks be reflectable? I always found it odd shield's of reflection couldn't reflect/block bolt spells.

[Lasty]

I think any new charms added to the game should be designed not to encourage you to cast them before every fight.

Eventually we're gonna do some overhaul on the whole school, I swear.

[MainiacJoe]

I think any new charms added to the game should be designed not to encourage you to cast them before every fight.

Eventually we're gonna do some overhaul on the whole school, I swear.

I agree. The couple of times I've played hybrids with Charms, I underused them because they were such a pain. "Should I cast it for this fight? Nah. Oh, I should have." etc.

[byrel]

Pro tip; macro all your prefight charms to a key (I use '0') and punch it when monsters come into LOS.

[tasonir]

It might be a more clear to take shroud's value/repulsion's value for the unravel comparison, just so that you end up with numbers larger than 1 being good, as the negate improve field does. As it stands, lower numbers are good in that column, and then higher numbers are good in the next column. But that's a minor point.

I'd like to see this added, but conflict with rmsl/dmsl, so you could only have one or the other up. That might give you some room to make it slightly stronger, although I think it's probably at a fairly good power level now (but agree it should be level 4-5, not 6+). If it does conflict with rmsl/dmsl that also gives you room to make the duration infinite, and have it only end when the unravel effect is triggered, which would cut down on recasting it. It'd still fall off often in practice, but at least it wouldn't fall off during autoexplore.

This would also reduce the no brainer to use rmsl/dmsl, as now you'd have an alternative worth considering. Especially if it ends up at level 4, it's a middle point that people who have better casting could get easily, while dmsl is usually still somewhat of an investment even for good casters.

[MainiacJoe]

It might be a more clear to take shroud's value/repulsion's value for the unravel comparison, just so that you end up with numbers larger than 1 being good, as the negate improve field does. As it stands, lower numbers are good in that column, and then higher numbers are good in the next column. But that's a minor point.

Here are the values presented this way:

  Code:

          Shroud    Shroud     Shroud    R Field    R Field    R Field   Unravel    Negate
Damage    Nothing   Unravel    Negate    Nothing    Unravel    Negate    Improve    Improve
   1        33%        6%        61%       25%         4%        71%      1.69       1.18
   2        33%       11%        56%       25%         7%        68%      1.64       1.23
   3        33%       15%        51%       25%        10%        65%      1.56       1.27
   4        33%       19%        48%       25%        13%        63%      1.52       1.31
   5        33%       22%        44%       25%        15%        60%      1.47       1.35
   6        33%       25%        42%       25%        17%        58%      1.45       1.38
   7        33%       27%        39%       25%        19%        56%      1.41       1.42
   8        33%       30%        37%       25%        21%        54%      1.39       1.45
   9        33%       32%        35%       25%        23%        52%      1.35       1.47
  10        33%       33%        33%       25%        25%        50%      1.33       1.50
  15        33%       40%        27%       25%        32%        43%      1.25       1.61
  20        33%       44%        22%       25%        38%        38%      1.19       1.69
  25        33%       48%        19%       25%        42%        33%      1.14       1.75
  30        33%       50%        17%       25%        45%        30%      1.11       1.80
  40        33%       53%        13%       25%        50%        25%      1.06       1.88
  50        33%       56%        11%       25%        54%        21%      1.04       1.93
  60        33%       57%        10%       25%        56%        19%      1.02       1.97
  70        33%       58%         8%       25%        58%        17%      1.00       2.00

I'd like to see this added, but conflict with rmsl/dmsl, so you could only have one or the other up. That might give you some room to make it slightly stronger, although I think it's probably at a fairly good power level now (but agree it should be level 4-5, not 6+). If it does conflict with rmsl/dmsl that also gives you room to make the duration infinite, and have it only end when the unravel effect is triggered, which would cut down on recasting it. It'd still fall off often in practice, but at least it wouldn't fall off during autoexplore.

I'm glad you like the spell, but I have to say that I at least would have trouble knowing which is a better spell if I can only have one set. RMsl/DMsl negates attacks by increasing EV, while Shroud/Repulsion Field negates attacks after EV fails, and it's not at all apparent which one prevents more damage. Whether I'm learning Air vs Transloc would help make that choice, of course, but that's the only way I'd know which to choose. And after all getting reflection was my purpose for buildign the spell at first, it was afterwards that "better Shroud" revelaed itself as a good thing.

This would also reduce the no brainer to use rmsl/dmsl, as now you'd have an alternative worth considering. Especially if it ends up at level 4, it's a middle point that people who have better casting could get easily, while dmsl is usually still somewhat of an investment even for good casters.

Yeah I'm not surprised that my guess at its level was off. Level 4 it is, then.

[tasonir]

While I have no idea what do nothing/unravel chance etc numbers would be correct, the goal would be for it to reduce damage more than rmsl, but less than dmsl, if it's level 4. It should also reduce damage slightly less efficiently than those two since it will reflect some damage, so it trades some of the defense for offense.

Ballpark imaginary numbers:

Rmsl reduces ranged damage by 20%
Repulsion field reduces ranged damage by 25%, reflects 15% damage back to monsters.
Dmsl reduces ranged damage by 40%.